Malini Mehra is founder and CEO at the Centre for Social Markets. Photograph: guardian.co.uk

Mahatma Gandhi understood only too well the destructive power of greed. "God forbid that India should ever take to industrialism after the manner of the west," he warned. "If [our nation] took to similar economic exploitation, it would strip the world bare like locusts."

Those words ring only too true in the ears of Malini Mehra, founder and CEO of the Centre for Social Markets, a non-profit organisation that has pioneered work on sustainability and corporate responsibility in India.

Those hoping the developing world will avoid adopting the destructive nature of western consumerism are naïve, she says, as Gandhi's vision of justice and treading lightly on the planet is obliterated by a growing and rampant middle class.

Malini, who sits on the advisory boards of Unilever, Kimberly-Clark, BHP Billiton and the German government's International Climate Initiative, is also scathing of those who say they are optimistic that technological innovation alone will halt the ravages of climate change and environmental destruction.

"There is a certain fashion to call yourself an optimist," she says, "but we cannot be blind to the trends we see which are becoming starker day by day: rising greenhouse gas emissions, social inequality and levels of conflict.

"Gandhi is no longer a lightning rod or icon for the young. If he were alive today he would be totally bewildered and think India had taken the wrong path."

She contrasts Gandhi's exhortation to think of the effect on the poorest person before taking any action with what she describes as the obscene behaviour of India's emerging billionaires.

"The rise in inequality in India is unconscionable," says Malini. "Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in India, has built a billion dollar skyscraper as a home, while the country has the largest population who are hungry, illiterate and have to shit in the open. What's most shocking is that it does not shock. Indians do not look with jealousy any more at western lifestyles. We now have our own billionaires people are aspiring to."

Malini bemoans the fact that discussions around morality are largely absent in public discourse and that greed and desire have taken over from thoughts of sufficiency.

"You cannot avoid the whole consumerist psychology of feeling life is better with the acquisition of material goods," she says, pointing out that even the religious temples are being corrupted by growing wealth. "People still go to the temple but now give money, when in the past they might take a packet of sweets.

"This illustrates the real kind of unease there is in a country that has come to a materialist and a consumerist lifestyle so shockingly quickly. It's jarring with spiritual injunctions which are against the material life. These are all unresolved tensions."

Consumption is by no means the only problem. Environmental degradation is growing, spurred by resource extraction that is also leading to grave human-rights abuses.

Cities have become huge dumping grounds with "an almost medieval system of leaving ones garbage in public spaces with no-one taking responsibility," says Malini. "Many seek refuge in denial, believing there will be businesses or NGOs that will clear it up."

Biodiversity is also faring badly, and Malini worries that "if we cannot even protect our national animal, the tiger, what hope is there for animals that are not iconic?"

History

To understand how India has reached this point, Malini says it is important to know the nation's recent history.

Until the 1990s, India's economy was tightly controlled and foreign goods were available only to the elite, and therefore highly prized. Those Indians who were educated abroad came back transfixed by the consumer lifestyle of the West.

The subsequent liberalisation of the economy led to a boom in entrepreneurship, much of which was focussed on the import/export market, which started sucking in large amounts of consumer products to service the emerging middle class.

One thing Indians did not learn from the West was the desire to consume, which Malini points out is very much grounded in Indian culture. "Don't think you need to teach the Indians how to shop," she says. "We are great at this – just look at any rite of passage such as births and marriages and you see just how capable we are of consuming wildly."

What has changed in recent years is the growing disparity between the rich and poor as the middle class grows bigger and richer, without the benefits trickling down to the "service" classes or the absolute poor.

Malini points to the growing numbers of gated communities and shopping arcades protected by security guards to keep out the unwashed masses. "There has been a massive widening in income disparity, with a very self-satisfied middle class which is grandiosely consuming and sees no end to it," says Malini. "We now have some of the largest shopping malls in the world, full of western chains. The shift in lifestyle and aspiration is very palpable.

"People are now consumed with wanting to go and spend money outside rather than socialise at home, which was the tradition. These malls have everything, including cinemas and restaurants and – most importantly – no poor people."

The middle class now represents around a tenth of the population, but Malini sees the next entrepreneurs concentrating on offering shopping experiences to the service class, such as domestic staff and drivers, that represents around half of the population, through store chains such as Pantaloon, which has more than 1,000 sites across India.

What worries Malini most is the increasing risk of conflict. "The future is not sanguine," she says. "Things are going to be a lot more difficult as inequalities rise and this will drive a real wedge in society and lead to even more conflict. In a sense we have not seen anything yet."

The role of business

Malini recognises companies can play a powerful and positive role because of their ability to create change, but says they must move beyond personal profit and recognise their role in social transformation.

She recognises the risk of companies going for short-term gains and refers to countries such as China and India as "supreme Viagra" for many consumer goods companies, given the size of the markets and the lack of functioning government systems to monitor standards and product responsibility.

However, she also sees a growing number of businesses that recognise the risk to their brands if they do not behave responsibly.

She says companies increasingly need to recognise their social role in supporting national and local political structures in creating effective infrastructure projects to deliver basic services.

It is not enough for companies such as Coca-Cola to talk about its ability to provide clean bottled water across India, even if it is seeking to minimise waste by creating bottles made of plant-based materials.

"If you want to satisfy the basic need for access to water, you should help countries to improve the quality of water from the tap," she says. "That means rethinking your business model and working to increase the capacity of local government to provide basic public provision."

Business can also have a powerful impact in breaking through the caste system by offering opportunities to all, and particularly with improving the lives of the absolute poor at the bottom of the pyramid.

"Business has got to understand its role in conflict resolution," she says. "Through supply chains, companies can value egalitarian social relations. India has a very sophisticated system of social hierarchy which creates social tension and business can challenge this system head on by giving dignity to everyone rather than feeding the existing system based on caste and cronyism."

Malini warns about creating a mythology of the green consumer who will act for the good of the planet.

In India, there is a very small minority of ethical consumers who support fair trade and some Indian clothes designers are sourcing natural materials such as organic cotton. But these are almost irrelevant when set against the wave of ceaseless consumption.

"Rather than waiting for consumers to play catch-up, companies must start choice editing products that are resource intensive or create waste," she says. "Business also needs to work increasingly in partnership with other players in society. We are all implicated in this and if we don't work together we will end up creating more mountains of misery while happily shopping."

Malini will be participating in a debate that will unpick how sustainabile living can become mainstream on 22 November alongside Unilever's CEO, Paul Polman, President of the Rainforest Alliance, Tensie Whelan and CEO of Havas, David Jones.

We'll be live streaming the debate on Guardian Sustainable Business, if you'd like us to send you a reminder when the event is about start then register your interest below. You can also pose questions to Malini in advance and we'll endeavour to get them answered on the day

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